How to Check Your Computer Performance on Windows 10

Download Article
Two easy ways to test the speed of your PC's processor, RAM, drives, and graphics card
Download Article

Windows' security system does so much more than just catching malware on the internet. It can also tell you when your computer isn't performing normally. However, if you would prefer a more detailed look into your computers' components and their performance, you can use Window's Performance Monitor, which is a built-in feature that's a little more detailed than what you get with Windows Security. This How.com.vn will teach you how to use Windows Security as well as Performance Monitor to check your Windows 10 computer's performance.

Things You Should Know

  • The "Device performance & health" area of Windows Security makes it easy to scan for hardware and software issues.
  • Use the Performance Monitor to create custom monitoring graphs components like your processor, network card, RAM, GPU, and more.
  • Press Ctrl + Alt + Del and select Task Manager to see how well your apps utilizing your hardware.
Method 1
Method 1 of 2:

Using Windows Security

Download Article
  1. Step 1 Open "Windows Security.
    " Press the Windows key to open your taskbar, then start typing to begin the search. Click the app from the search results to open it.[1]
    • Alternatively, you can open Settings and click Update & Security > Windows Security > Open Windows Security.
  2. How.com.vn English: Step 2 Click Device performance & health.
    It's the tile with a heart icon.
    Advertisement
  3. How.com.vn English: Step 3 Check the list for any yellow marks.
    While green marks are good, yellow marks indicate areas that need attention.[2]
    • If you see a yellow mark next to any of the listed items, click it to see what Windows 10 recommends you to do.
    • If the date listed for the last scan date is not recent, you may want to run another scan to catch any issues or resolve them.[3]
      • You can try navigating to this page again to attempt to trigger a quick scan for "Device performance health."
  4. How.com.vn English: Step 4 Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc (to troubleshoot with task manager).
    This keyboard shortcut will open the task manager. Click the Performance tab to see your CPU, memory, or graphics card stats.
    • If your CPU or graphics card consistently looks like it's pushed to 100% too often, you should close any unused applications that are running in the background. However, you may need to purchase an upgrade if closing those extra applications does not work.
    • You can also check the memory usage on your computer. If that's too high as well, you can close extra applications and programs you have running in the background, or purchase an upgrade.
  5. Advertisement
Method 2
Method 2 of 2:

Using Performance Monitor

Download Article
  1. How.com.vn English: Step 1 Open Performance Monitor.
    To open it, you'll find the app in the Start menu, or you can press the Win key and type "Performance Monitor" inside the search bar that appears, then click the app that appears in the search results.[4]
    • If you are running Windows 10, this is not software that you need to download, but it is pre-installed with Windows 10 machines.
    • You will immediately see real-time results of your computer's memory, network adapter, physical disk, and processor usage.
  2. How.com.vn English: Step 2 Click Performance Monitor.
    It's in the panel on the left side of the window.
    • You'll see a graph that represents your processor time or information, but you can add different elements to the monitor.
  3. How.com.vn English: Step 3 Add new elements to monitor.
    Click the green + icon at the top of the window so you can add more processes to the graph.[5]
    • Select your computer name or "Local computer" from the drop-down menu, then click the arrow beside a category to expand it. Finally, click a process to add it to the graph.
    • For example, to add the "Bytes Received/sec" on the network adapter, click the green + icon, select "Local computer," click the arrow next to "Network Adapter" and click "Bytes Received/Sec." If you have more than one Network Adapter, you may have to specify which one you want to monitor.
    • Finally, click OK to close the menu and add the process to the graph.
  4. How.com.vn English: Step 4 Customize the Performance Monitor display.
    You can set different lines on the graph to varying colors so you can identify what line represents what process quicker.
    • Double-click a line in the graph to open that line's "Performance Monitor Properties" window and navigate to the Data tab to edit the line appearances and colors.
    • You can also change the overall graph by pressing Ctrl + G or clicking the "Change graph type" button in the toolbar to the left of the green + button.
    • These graphs will give you indications that something might be wrong. For instance, if you notice that "Physical Disk" is displaying high numbers a lot, and that might indicate that it might be time to replace your physical disk.[6]
  5. Advertisement

Expert Q&A

Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
      Advertisement

      Video

      Tips

      Submit a Tip
      All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
      Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

      About This Article

      How.com.vn English: Darlene Antonelli, MA
      Written by:
      How.com.vn Technology Writer
      This article was co-authored by How.com.vn staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for How.com.vn. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been viewed 87,725 times.
      How helpful is this?
      Co-authors: 7
      Updated: March 28, 2024
      Views: 87,725
      Categories: Windows 10
      Article SummaryX

      1. Open "Windows Security".
      2. Click Device performance & health.
      3. Check the list for any yellow marks.
      4. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc (to troubleshoot with task manager).

      Did this summary help you?

      Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 87,725 times.

      Is this article up to date?

      ⚠️ Disclaimer:

      Content from Wiki How English language website. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License; additional terms may apply.
      Wiki How does not encourage the violation of any laws, and cannot be responsible for any violations of such laws, should you link to this domain, or use, reproduce, or republish the information contained herein.

      Notices:
      • - A few of these subjects are frequently censored by educational, governmental, corporate, parental and other filtering schemes.
      • - Some articles may contain names, images, artworks or descriptions of events that some cultures restrict access to
      • - Please note: Wiki How does not give you opinion about the law, or advice about medical. If you need specific advice (for example, medical, legal, financial or risk management), please seek a professional who is licensed or knowledgeable in that area.
      • - Readers should not judge the importance of topics based on their coverage on Wiki How, nor think a topic is important just because it is the subject of a Wiki article.

      Advertisement